“We got presents that were donated….
I got a little cheap plastic watch and a coat that my auntie had made,
but I just didn’t even care ’cos I was having so much fun.”
– Sam, Miner’s Daughter aged 15 during the strike

It’s Christmas 1984. Sam, Gayle, Jayne and Craig are the children of striking miners.
This is the story of how acts of generosity by total strangers made Christmas possible for them that year, and what it was like for them to grow up in the shadow of the Miners’ Strike.

A share of a pensioner’s Christmas ‘Bonus’ bears witness to their untold stories, and includes artefacts from the People’s History Museum archive, and a newly commissioned audiovisual project by artist and film-maker Esther Johnson, and film-maker and writer Debbie Ballin.

This exhibition is part of a wider research project by Johnson and Ballin titled Echoes of Protest, investigating the legacy of being involved in significant protest movements from a child’s perspective. The project aims to understand the role protest can play in the lives of children, and to explore its aftermath.